I am sure I posted about this last year, but am trying again for new ideas. This time of the year, we get a hoard of biting flys the make the dogs lives a misery. They look like house flys but they bite. They land on the dogs ears inhuge groups and bite till the dogs bleed. You can pick up a bunch of these horrible little things in your hand, they dont fly away. They also bite humans. In the end the dogs ears are raw , bleeding and hairless. This is what I and my vet have tried so far over the years. Citronella, Aqeous cream, Vaseline, home made concoctions of garlic, mustard, pepper, that sort of thing. Horse fly repellent, fly repellent for cattle, oil of lavender, the list goes on and on!! Has anyone any ideas that I could try, or experience of these flys please? My vet had one looked at and apparently they are Cornish tin mine flys.Even the miners used to have to wear protective clothing against the little s***!!

What about the stuff they use on sheep? Don't know much about it will ask my sister in the morning to see if it is (a) OK for dogs and (b) not bright purple. Ja:)kie

:D Thanks Jackie x

Have spoken to my sister and she says she does not think any have a licence for use on dogs but suggests you phone the manufactures as they may be able to help or tell you of a suitable product.

Vetrazin Pour On - 10 weeks protection against Fly strike - Pink but fades after 7 days made by Novartis Animal Health UK Ltd - 01223 833634

Parasol made by Ciba Geigy Agro. Chem. - 01233 833621

Province Pour On - made by C-Vet Veterinary Products - 01772 43677 - this number may have been changed.

She, my sister, said that they manufactures are very helpfull and can be trusted to give you the best advice they can and do not mind your inquirey at all.

so hope you can get an answer to your problem do let me know how it goes.

Its not licenced for dogs & to be honest I would not put it on them if it were me! I spray the hounds with "fly away" repellant, its for horses but says it can be used on humans, so thats good enough for me! Presume its the flies biting you are trying to prevent, rather than "fly strike" which is different.

My sister mentioned the horse spray but thought that was citrenella (sorry) and you have already tried that. Jackie

Thank you both very much for your help, I shall look into all options. I didnt know about something called "fly strike" perhaphs I should have called post " striking by flies" lol :D

Phil, fly strike is a nasty thing that happens to sheep and sometimes cattle. Flies are attracked to the dampness and faeces and lay eggs around the sheep's rear. The eggs then hatch and the maggots form under the skin. Not nice :-(.

Hi sharon, That sounds awful. I have heard about that happening in rabbits, but didnt know it was called that. Thanks sis :D

Phil, you know my feelings about wrigglies and fly-strike sometimes features in my nightmares. Cornish tin mine flies looked like horrid little monsters, but there are worse things :-).

Yes I know there are Sharon, like worms and spiders :) but these rotten flies do so much damge to the dogs:(

All this talk of spiders and flies , well Thats very nice of you .
My worst nightmares spiders, flies and maggots ugh
Iwill not go in a room if there is cobwebs there not to mention the actual [shuddering] spider. year before last I booked the grand hotel in birmingham for the few days for crufts .
I could not go into the room as there were cobwebs in the ceiling corners and had to wait while they cleaned them off
and hoovered . Just in case the spider escaped.
It is only people with the phobia can understand the horror.
Mari

Ugh me too. This is our first house as we have always had town flats before so I have an all white bedroom (including curtains and the floor) so I can see anything untoward before I go to bed and I wont have any cobwebs anywhere. I think there are more spiders in houses than flats for some silly reason :o I always look under the pillows too :) Oh and daddy long legs are flying spiders. Ugh
Gina x

You should try a thatch cottage like mine....spiders EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!

Well I was not in bed last night till all hours . After all the shudderings at the posts I went out my kitchen to get a drink closed the window felt something on my head a flying ant, looked and there were loads of them walking all over the shade over the light bulb . I was physically ill. It took flash spray with bleach to get them to drop off onto floor . There are still some in the house but not many . my eyes are stingy from using stuff to kill them .
I could not believe it when I shut down the pc . it was a coincidence but a rotten one.
Today the seagulls are inland clearing them all up I was never so glad to wash bird droppings off windows and wheelybins . They ants must have come in the window after the glasss of ribena left on counter as they were teeming in it. ugh . Keith said he filled the glass to take to bed and then forgot it . burning them with petrol came to mind but sense took over from panic . Mari
I hate creepy crawlies

Poor Mari, That must have been awful for you, but your post really made me grin. You are the onlyperson I have ever known who actually washes their wheely bin :D

I dont do it often Sharon only when necessary but did you ever see a wheely after seagulls and magpies. Like whitewash ,dont think the bin men would be too happy if I did not clean them:( do flying ants bite does anyone know . ?

Hi again Mari, Boy, those ants shook you up as much as spiders do me, the posting was from me, not my sis :D Cant help witht the flying ants question, never been near enough to find out!!! ;)

Hi Mari, our last house in Northern Ireland was on the coast (Whiterock), and the wheelie bin used to get washed occassionally - but only because sometimes when the tide was very high it made like a boat and floated away :-)!

lol, Did you put your wadders on and go and get it back? :D

Phil, it would have been more a case of putting on a (non-existent) wet suit :-). No, we had to wait for the tide which usually beached the thing a mile away. Motorists who didn't live in the area used to look quite puzzled when they saw a number of idiot residents who'd forgotten to move their bin above high tide level trundling home with wet wheelie bins :D!

Yup, thats what I meant Sharon. Fly strike is basically blow flies laying eggs on (usually)sheep and eggs hatch into maggots & maggots eat into sheep flesh....& so on. Your problem sounds more like fly BITES not fly strike.